I'm Impressed!!!

I have had my Grizzly G0555X for about a year now. I would say that I have been generally pleased. Even so, I've always been a little frustrated (a couple of times more than a little) with the guides even though this "Extreme Series" model comes standard with ball bearing guides. Right from the beginning I thought that they were rather noisy and that they were a bear (pardon the pun) to adjust properly because of the single point locking screw and the eccentric style adjusters. I also thought the thrust bearing didn’t quite have the adjustment range needed to work properly with a 1/4” or 1/8” blade.

Anyway, received a couple of Visa gift cards for Christmas and I hadn’t used them yet so I decided to order a set of Carter Guides. I opted for the Micro-Adjust model. I got them yesterday and installed them, which by-the-way was very easy to do. Then I got right to work testing them out. First I raced through some sharp curves with a 1/4” blade (what I already had in the saw) then I swapped that out for a 3/4” blade and did some resawing. When I was done I stood there for a minute reflecting, then I did the only thing I could do. I picked up the phone and called Carter to give them a piece of my mind. That’s right; I just had to tell them…

WHAT A FREAKIN AWSOME PRODUCT THEY MAKE!!!!!!!!!

WOW! It’s like I have an entirely different saw. It is quiet and the adjustment process is ridiculously simple. But, that isn’t all… My saw now cuts far far better I ever imagined it could in any mode and with any blade.
I only wish that I had gotten these a year ago when I bought the saw. Now I’m going to have to save up for the “Stabilizer” add-on, their “Quick Release” lever, and the “AccuRight Ratchet-Rod”. Of course, by then I will have as much money in upgrades as I have in the saw itself. Ahhh, but what a saw I’ll have!!! :D

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Stew - Thanks I've often wondered if they are worth the extra dollars. I have a 16" Miniii-Max and never did care for the guides. I will be looking into it. Thanks again for the information.

Where is Van Huskey? I want him to chime in on this. Not bashing you or your opinion on the guides but had a discussion about the Carter guides recently with Van Huskey and I am curious to know what his thoughts are on your success.

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Originally Posted by Michael Mayo

Where is Van Huskey? I want him to chime in on this. Not bashing you or your opinion on the guides but had a discussion about the Carter guides recently with Van Huskey and I am curious to know what his thoughts are on your success.

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I looked up your conversation and I thought I'd drop in my 2 cents. Although it was never severe, I sometimes did get a little drift with my old guides. The cut would start wandering to the right sometimes and my resaws would occasionally be thicker on the bottom. I have to say that so far I've got absolutely no sign of drift with the new Carters and I haven't changed anything else in my setup. I even resawed a couple of test chunks of Mahogany and Hard Maple that were around 8" tall and 12" long to 1/8" with my 1/4" blade and got very even results top to bottom and front to back. My digital micrometer says the max variation from the thinnest to the thickest points of the slice was 1/128". I thought that was pretty good. My saw was never that accurate or consistent before.

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Originally Posted by Stew Hagerty

I looked up your conversation and I thought I'd drop in my 2 cents. Although it was never severe, I sometimes did get a little drift with my old guides. The cut would start wandering to the right sometimes and my resaws would occasionally be thicker on the bottom. I have to say that so far I've got absolutely no sign of drift with the new Carters and I haven't changed anything else in my setup. I even resawed a couple of test chunks of Mahogany and Hard Maple that were around 8" tall and 12" long to 1/8" with my 1/4" blade and got very even results top to bottom and front to back. My digital micrometer says the max variation from the thinnest to the thickest points of the slice was 1/128". I thought that was pretty good. My saw was never that accurate or consistent before.

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That is some very impressive accuracy Stew. I was seriously considering getting the Carter guides for my older Grizzly saw but discussed it with Van Huskey offline and his opinion was that the saw i have was really worth the investment and that the blade do not have that much of an effect on the cutting accuracy of the bandsaw. My big problem is the guides but not because they cause inaccuracy. They just suck and the upper one actually broke so no instead of two sets of guides i now have only one. After some coaching and advice from Van i was able to get the saw to cut very straight. That was as a result of my blade being screwed up from the broken guide mount allowing the guides to run on the teeth of the blade which ruined it causing wayward cutting. After switching out that blade and readjusting everything the saw cuts very reliably now but is still very loud.

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Originally Posted by Michael Mayo

That is some very impressive accuracy Stew. I was seriously considering getting the Carter guides for my older Grizzly saw but discussed it with Van Huskey offline and his opinion was that the saw i have was really worth the investment and that the blade do not have that much of an effect on the cutting accuracy of the bandsaw. My big problem is the guides but not because they cause inaccuracy. They just suck and the upper one actually broke so no instead of two sets of guides i now have only one. After some coaching and advice from Van i was able to get the saw to cut very straight. That was as a result of my blade being screwed up from the broken guide mount allowing the guides to run on the teeth of the blade which ruined it causing wayward cutting. After switching out that blade and readjusting everything the saw cuts very reliably now but is still very loud.

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Mine is whisper quiet now. Far better that the annoyingly twangy whine that I've put up with for the last year. I'm not exagerating at all when I say that the change in my saw is at least a full 100% improvement. Where I used to use my bandsaw when I needed to, I now want to use it because I can. To me, just difference when it comes time to swap out blades is worth the money for the guides. Adjusting the stock guides always took forever to get just right. I couldn't reccomend them more!